Program aims to help more kids fall in love with ballet

[CLASSICAL MUSIC] CATHY WURZER: Ballet fans out there will recognize the name Misty Copeland, the first African-American principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre. Copeland began her ballet career at 13 with a free class at her local gym. And our next guest referenced that story when she was interviewed by the Star Tribune about a similar opportunity for kids in Saint Paul this week.

Emilia Garrido Vásquez is hoping to give more young people a chance to fall in love with ballet, an art form that has traditionally been focused on white Europeans with many barriers to entry. She's leading three days of no-cost bilingual dance classes for kids aged seven to nine who belong to communities that are underrepresented in the ballet world. She's on the line to tell us more. Emilia, welcome. It's really a pleasure to have you here.

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: Thank you so much for having me. I'm a little bit under the weather. I will say that.

CATHY WURZER: Oh. I'm so sorry, but thank you for taking the time to talk with us. I want to ask you about you to begin with. I know that-- I understand you got serious about dance when you were just 10 years old in Ecuador. How did you get involved? And what did you like about it?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: First, I started doing gymnastics back at home. And I found it a little bit tricky to stay on top of their routines because my coaches were not very gentle when teaching. So I switched to ballet because I thought that it would be something very similar. I was a very flexible kid. And I really enjoyed the routine and really just the ritual of dancing. It's so phenomenal. So I have not stopped ever since.

CATHY WURZER: Do you remember-- gosh, who were your teachers? I mean, where did they come from? And what was their background?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: I remember my teachers very well. They were all different places-- from Ecuador. And I also had a lot of Cuban influences. The Cuban ballet has a tremendous influence in Latin American ballet, starting with Alicia Alonso, who was one of the first Latina dancers to be a prominent ballerina in the American scene.

CATHY WURZER: So you moved to Minnesota. I bet it was hard to keep dancing here.

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: Oh, yes. It was extremely difficult because I think that it's just very expensive. And I kind of saw myself in a little bit of a bubble, not really being able to communicate with others. I couldn't really speak English. So it was really hard.

CATHY WURZER: And I am thinking, too, that money may have been a barrier. Money is a barrier for a lot of different individuals, right? So how was that for you?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: It wasn't very different. I think that for me, my parents, when we first came to United States, they came because they had the opportunity to continue their studies and get their PhDs at the U of M. And as grad students, you might know that you are a little bit tight on money kind of always.

So they really wanted me to continue dancing. But unfortunately, it was not something that they could longer afford. The classes, the average class in a preprofessional ballet school tends to vary, but it's around $500 a month.

And for me, it was just really my dream to keep on building what I have been doing for so long at that point. But I was very fortunate that they were able to reach out for help and try to contact different people, and I was able to continue dancing. And I was extremely lucky.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, I'm glad you continued to dance. You've talked about barriers embedded in ballet, in the art form. And any-- I guess, any art form, any endeavor probably has many flaws, right? So what are the fundamental flaws in ballet when it comes to barriers to access, holding up standards of beauty? What do you think?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: I believe that ballet still has many flaws that I think that people arduously try to fix every day. And I can see a difference. I can see how it has been moving forward.

But I would say that still, mainly, people that are in the ballet scene come from very privileged backgrounds. So people that are not able to access ballet, it's very unrepresented communities, minoritized communities. And it's just not in terms of race. I think minoritized communities refers to wide range of different people.

For instance, I can think of the LGBTQ community. I can think of just neurodiversity status. I can think of disability status and also just representation of people that come from different countries. I can think of even just language barriers. There's so many barriers to just put on people that are trying to get started.

And then you add some other structural barriers that also play into the fundamentals of why not everyone can access to this. And yeah, it gets just very complicated when you see the costumes, when you see the technique and the kind of body that is mainly featured in ballets. Then you can kind of see that it has a correlation with Eurocentric features. The hair-- how ballerinas put their hair in a bun. I mean, everything really tracks back to its origins.

CATHY WURZER: I'm excited that you're partnering with Grand Jeté in Saint Paul. Can you tell us about the Ballet Explorers program?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: Yes, for sure. So Ballet Explorers is my community project, which is in part a fulfillment of my duty as a Phillips Scholar to develop a program that is addressing a need in the community. As a ballet dancer, my experience in the dance community has been influenced by a lot of my identities as well as my resources and a little bit of lack of as well.

Ballet represents a lot of barriers for young dancers, which is why I think it's so important to address some of the main ones. For me and my program, these barriers are transportation, expensive ballet attire and shoes, and the elevated class prices of dance classes. In my personal experience as an immigrant as well, I also had to deal a lot with a language barrier. And adding onto this, ballet comes with some social barriers that I was a little bit not getting in touch and touching based on those barriers.

But it gets to be very difficult for minoritized communities to have access to early ballet education. When it comes to ballet, you kind of have to start young. And it's just something that gives you so many incredible skills that as a dancer you get to have. And it's really an ace up your sleeve. And you get to navigate through life with these magnificent skills that you get to use forever, even if you don't become a ballet dancer.

But I think that the exposure to art, it's so important overall everywhere. And even if you don't really feel like ballet is for you, a lot of people don't even try it because it's just so pricey in the first place. So I wanted to create a program that could remove some of those barriers and also give access to some of the resources.

So if kids wanted to continue dancing afterwards, after the program, they could still have ballet shoes and ballet clothing in order to do so. And they could still be familiar with the resources and the places and the structure of the class. So I think that for this, my class is going to be taking place on next-- well, tomorrow, actually.

CATHY WURZER: Tomorrow. Right.

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: Tomorrow, the 15th, Wednesday, the 16th, and Thursday, the 17th. And Grand Jeté is going to be providing access to clothing. And they're 100% sponsoring the clothing and the shoes for the kids that get registered into my program.

And St. Paul Ballet is sponsoring the studios. And they have magnificent studios there. And they have the mirrors and the bars, everything. And I'm also offering transportation accommodations because I believe that I am very aware that not all parents are able to take their kids to dance.

CATHY WURZER: Oh my goodness. This sounds amazing. So if someone's listening and they want to sign up, is it too late today to hurry up and contact you?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: No, not at all. I believe that you can still get to do it.

CATHY WURZER: Great.

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: Yeah, I think it's a perfect opportunity for anyone. As part of my class, I'm also trying to do a bilingual component to it because I believe that is really important for kids, you know?

CATHY WURZER: Mm-hmm. Quickly, Emilia, where can folks contact you if they want to sign up right away?

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: For sure. They can contact me through my email. I will also be putting some more information later on and give my information to you guys. So if they visit your website, they probably will find all of my info.

CATHY WURZER: OK. We will do that. Emilia, thank you so much. I hope you feel better. Thank you for the conversation.

EMILIA GARRIDO VÁSQUEZ: Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Emilia Garrido Vásquez is a dancer who's launching the Ballet Explorers program. Thank you so much for listening to Minnesota Now here on MPR News.